Bearer of the light: Vassula- Mediatrix of Divided Christians

Vassula was a Greek mystic of our time who received a great burden for the unity of the Eastern and Western Christian Churches. She was a member of the Eastern Orthodox Communion, but developed a greater following among the Roman Catholics and some among Protestants in the west. Michael O'Carroll was one of her attendants and studied the phenomenon of her revelations and messages of exhortation to Christians to focus on their spiritual unity and work toward greater practical unity. One interesting aspect is that within the Catholic context, she seems to have avoided the wild disconnect of free personal revelation sometimes associated with the cultic or Pentecostal prophet-preachers. Scriptural Focus She was a true mystic in the Medieval sense, with a great concern for focus on the person and character of God in contemplation, prayer and worship. Her practical message, as interpreted by O'Carroll, expresses a concern to relate directly to the foundation of scripture. Her messages and his writings on her experiences and messages are replete with New Testament references. On the other hand, Protestants will have some difficulty relating to the very traditional expressions of devotion in the traditional medieval format or rosary, devotion to Mary and the saints and other Catholic and Orthodox characteristics. One excellent point O'Carroll makes in this volume is to clarify and emphasize the symbolic and metaphorical character of mystical terminology. The metaphors used by Vassula and other mystics to express the meaning of the Kingdom of God are quite similar to the metaphors used by Jesus in his teachings, using organic daily metaphors, like the vine and the fruit, the wine and the bred, the water of life, as expressions to create an intuitive concept of the spiritual relationships envisioned in Gospel. He exposes the reductionist, literalistic linguistic analysis of our modernist worldview, so vividly expressed in the Fundamentalist approaches to the supernatural. The Mystery of God Carroll points out that the point of mysticism, and of Vassula's messages in particular, the broader image is to give us a bit of insight into the mystery of God and the divine dimension that our minds cannot grasp due to the limitations of our human experience. This is a limitation very difficult for a rationalist to grasp. Many seem not to realize that this is the problem with as the reactionary fundamentalism so common today. What is commonly called "Fundamentalism" is just the more expression of the Modernism they decry. Everything needs to be analyzed, rationalized, objectified and mastered mentally in our theories of God and the universe. Even though the Modernist worldview and has fallen out of popular fashion, they cling to it. Mysticism and Postmodernism This is the main reason "Postmodern" thinking is such a threat to conservative and Fundamentalist figures. Their rationalist, literate, scientific -- and ironically secular -- worldview is t